Waukesha Electric is expanding its manufacturing plant by 50%, to provide it the capability to produce large and extra high voltage power transformers that are critical to the development of an efficient, flexible and more reliable electricity grid, the Department of Energy said.

Waukesha Electric last year announced a $70 million expansion that was funded with the help of $25 million in government tax credits, including $12 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Officials at Waukesha's parent company, SPX, said last year that the Waukesha project is the biggest capital investment ever undertaken by the Charlotte, N.C.-based company.

Modern transformers are “increasingly important as the nation works to add more wind and solar power to the grid,” according to a media advisory from the Department of Energy.

As many as 250 new jobs are expected from the expansion, as the company prepares to build bigger power transformers that can cost up to $10 million each and weigh hundreds of tons.

The expansion was projected to add 100 permanent, full-time jobs beginning in late 2011 rising to about 250 jobs in three years, according to the company.

Waukesha Electric is a double-recipient of stimulus funding: It also was awarded a $10.7 million ARRA grant for smart grid technologies. The grant was awarded to Waukesha to build a superconducting transformer that's 50% smaller and 50% less heavy than a conventional transformer, leading to lower power consumption.

Waukesha is investing $10.8 million in the superconducting transformer project, which will be installed as part of a smart grid demonstration project that the utility Southern California Edison is setting up in Irvine, Calif.

About Thomas Content

Thomas Content covers energy, clean technology and sustainable business. A series he co-wrote on energy and climate change won top honors in 2008 from the National Press Foundation.

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EnSync Energy Systems has shipped a utility-scale energy storage system to South Korea, the Menomonee Falls company said.

The 500-kilowatt-hour system incorporates enough battery power for four or more hours of discharge, using EnSync’s zinc bromide flow batteries as well as power electronics and converters.

Formerly known as ZBB Energy, EnSync is focused on smaller energy storage systems for commercial buildings such as projects it's built in Hawaii in recent years. But it's also been working on larger energy storage systems.